New automotive designs increasingly reduce underhood space while simultaneously increasing cooling requirements of engines and transmissions. Accordingly, engine and drive train configurations which provide more efficient packaging of oil coolers are needed. Currently, transmission oil coolers tend to be separate units which project out into underhood space. This is especially a problem with front wheel drive vehicles that have both the engine and transmission disposed under the hood along with the radiator. Since vehicles now have other cooling needs, removal of the transmission oil cooler releases additional space for these needs. Moreover, transmission oil needs to be filtered to remove impurities and occasional metal filings and other debris therefrom. When filters are placed under the hood, the filters of course consume valuable space which might be needed for other purposes.
Typically, vehicles which are equipped with automatic, manual or semi-manual transmissions having recirculated transmission oil, cool the oil with a heat exchanger so that excessive heat build-up does not damage fragile engine parts. The usual location of the heat exchanger is near the radiator with hot transmission oil being pumped through small pipes to the heat exchanger. Coolant from the radiator is circulated through the heat exchanger to draw heat out of the oil and the cooled oil is then returned to the transmission. Traditionally, internal combustion engines use a spin-on oil filter, which of course projects out of an engine and consumes considerable space. In some automotive designs, an oil cooler is utilized in addition to the spin-on filter. Both the oil cooler and spin-on filter consume valuable space which can be used for other purposes as well as being used to provide additional space for engine access needed for service.